Laborers and the Sunday Rest Crusade

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Aug 8, 1907

Laborers and the Sunday Rest Crusade

At last the combined efforts of Catholic and Protestant churchmen have succeeded in making the laboring man believe that he is being robbed of his liberties when accepting work on Sunday; or so an editorial in the Episcopal Recorder would seem to indicate. It reads, in part, as follows:—

A thorough, businesslike effort is being made by the people at the western end of our State [Pennsylvania] to secure Sunday as a day of rest. The working men of Allegheny County have inaugurated a movement with this object in view. The work originated among the working men who found themselves being more and more compelled to toil seven days, and under their deepening sense of bondage they turned to the churches for aid in their efforts to find relief. Catholics and Protestants have united in the effort, and the conference which inaugurated the “Sunday Rest Association” was presided over by Bishop Conevin, of the Roman Church. Four hundred religious organizations, a hundred societies and brotherhoods, the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce, and thirty labor organizations, have all united in the movement. . . . The petition rightly expresses it when it declares that the petitioners “are performing a most important religious and patriotic service, and acting in a matter fraught with tremendous consequences to this community, and even the whole country.”

For years religious societies have been seeking to make the laboring man stand sponsor for the Sunday-law crusade; but up to the present time at least there has been no evidence that he was a willing sponsor. Clergymen have pleaded for the Sunday law in the name of the laboring man, and the laboring man has been there to protest that he did not want it. While it is stated in the above that the laboring men have inaugurated this movement, it is worthy of note that the most prominent part in it is being taken by the combined forces of the Catholic and Protestant churches. Here is a union of the two for the legal establishment of Sunday sacredness. It is very appropriate therefore that the Catholic bishop should preside at the meetings of the conference. There is another point worthy of note, and that is that they are making the observance of Sunday a matter of patriotic service to the country. With the course of events moving in this direction as rapidly as they are, we need not expect it to be long until the cry of treason is raised against all those who choose to obey God rather than man in the matter of Sabbath observance.

ONE of the greatest destroyers of moral stamina at present known is the cigarette. It dulls every aspiration for good, and yet is so insidious in its work that its devotees seem unable to realize the devastation which it is working in their system until so completely under its control that there is no escape from its toils. The Sunday School Times, prints the following letter from the general superintendent of the Pittsburg Railway Companies, Mr. John Murphy:—

Being an officer of a company that carries, and, of course, is responsible for the safety of, over two hundred and twenty-five million per year, it becomes my moral and legal, as well as my public duty, to use all reasonable means to protect the lives and further the comfort of this large number of passengers. Having for some time back noticed that our accidents were increasing, upon investigating the cause I satisfied myself that the standard of our men who did not use liquor or tobacco (the latter in the form of cigarettes) was much above that of those who used either. I therefore deemed it my duty to abate the evil, so far as lay in my power to do so, and tried to uproot it and cast it out through discipline, but found this method inadequate and ineffectual. I then went further, and concluded the desired end could be attained only by removing from the service or refraining from employing all men addicted to the objectionable habits alluded to. It is my aim and intention to pursue this policy without abatement, since I have by it proved beyond all doubt that it has raised the standard of our men. I have been criticized for the stringency of the order, especially the prohibition of the use of cigarettes; but, on the other hand, I have the assurance of our division superintendents (of which we have twelve), aided by my own observations, that persons addicted to the use of cigarettes, especially young men, are the most careless in their duties and less able to perform them than men using liquor in moderation. I may also mention that in seventeen years' experience as manager of public utility corporations, I have had occasion to promote many of our men from the rank of conductors and motor-men to officers, and in no case has a man using whisky come up to the requirements.

The plain observations made in the above letter by one in a position to render impartial judgment should carry the greatest weight, and it would be a kindness to any cigarette user to have such a statement placed in his hands.